Guiding You In Manifesting the Kingdom of God

I had my fifth conversation of the week (and it’s only Tuesday) with someone today who was going through the process of being stripped. They did not even realize that it was God taking them through a powerful process that is required of all of His elect. The Lord dropped it into my spirit to write about it so you can understand this inescapable process and how to move through it without losing your sanity.

There are three stages through which the Lord takes everyone who says they are a believer. These stages are phases He allows to strengthen your walk with Him, move into your authority and teach you how to have unshakable faith. I used to think that it was only me going through this, but after years of working closely with those called to do great things in the Kingdom of God, I have come to see an undeniable pattern.

The steps I am talking about are:

1. Broken.
2. Emptied.
3. Stripped.

In order to create you anew, God must break your of your old self. He must take you through a process of humbling you so you fully surrender to His will in your life. He breaks you of who you think you are. You cannot truly serve God with pride, ego and arrogance. They have to go and this is the phase in which he causes you to question everything that you have used to define yourself. For me, He used becoming a single mother to break me. This reality took me to a place of breaking me down so ruthlessly that there was literally none of me left. One day I fell flat on my face and cried out to the Lord to no longer do my will, but for His will to be done in my life.

Once the breaking has begun, then He must empty you of your old ways. He must empty you of your past habits, beliefs, thought processes, addictions, behaviors and uncleannesses (Ezekiel 36: 29; Galatians 5:19). This is when you lose your “appetite” for the friends you’ve always had, the places you have always gone and the bad habits you have participated in. It feels like He has taken you by the ankles and is shaking everything that you are familiar with out of you.

Once He begins emptying you of what you think you know, He begins to pour the Truth of His Word in you. This is when you begin to hunger and crave His Word. When you are in this phase you are more interested in learning His ways than you are attached to your old ways or what you have learned prior to your walk with God and coming into the Truth of who He is.

Just like an infomercial…right when you think the deal is done, there flashes a big, “BUT WAIT, THAT’S NOT ALL” on the screen of your life. There is one more phase that no one wants to talk about – stripped.

Then…comes the stripping. This is the final part of the process of Jesus testing you to see if you are truly worthy to be called one of His. He is testing you to see if you will serve Him no matter what. This is where most “believers” fall off their Christian walk. But, it cannot be avoided.

He then has to strip you from your worldly possessions. He literally removes anything that you are overly attached to from your life. Cars, houses, friendships, relationships, titles, money, jobs…

This is when you can feel like you are at your breaking point and possibly cannot go on. You must realize when you are in this step of the process because if you don’t, it can take you out. The great news is that He has left a way to pass through these processes with ease and joy.

You must remain in Him. You simply cannot look with your natural eyes because things look CRAZY! You must stay absolutely focused on the vision He has planted within you and know that His word does not return void (Isaiah 55:11). You are going through a season of pruning and it is necessary for Him to reconnect you with him – the branch.

The longer we fight these phases, the more difficult it is to move through them. The Body of Christ is being stripped. He is separating the true believers from those who have just been playing church and giving the Lord lip service.

Here are a few steps that can help you pass through these phases without too many battle wounds:

1. Don’t make it mean anything. When you are being emptied and stripped you can easily feel like you are not good enough, unworthy, embarrassed or that God has forsaken you. He has not. Just know that you are passing through a phase on your way to your promised land.

2. Renew Your Mind Daily. As you pass through this process, you cannot rely on your old mind. You have to adopt the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5) so you can see what is going on in your life from a Heavenly perspective and not the world’s. Ask Jesus, “How do you see me? What are you preparing me for, Lord?”

3. Spend more time in His presence. Set aside time every morning to not only pray, intercede and study the Word, but carve out time to sit in stillness and listen for His voice of instruction and peace that passes all understanding. Do whatever it takes to fully lean on him and not anything of the world. Let the Holy Spirit show you what it means to meditate on His Word day and night (Joshua 1:8;Psalms 1:2).

While these experiences may look different for everyone because it is according to your faith, your issues and your attachments, the process is identical. The Lord has to purify you in the fire of life to prepare you to really be ready to receive and to serve.

Know that on the other side of this is the “exceeding abundantly” that He promises those who believe in Him. He must break you, empty you out and then strip you to then finally fill you with His glory and blessings. You know you are ready when you move into a place like the Apostle Paul when he said, “But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” He said this as the Lord was blessing Him greatly through the gifts of the church at Phillipi after a challenging period.

Unlike the rich young ruler, you must remain in a state of being unattached to material things (Matthew 19:16 – 23; Mark 10:17 – 23; Luke 18:18 – 23). You have to be willing to walk away from anything in order to receive everything.

I had the privilege of presenting on a national prayer conference line this morning. As I was asking God what He would have me say, He illuminated something He shared with me during my prayer time yesterday. I wanted to share His words with you:

As I was reading John 6:35 (And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst), He said to me, “There is a difference between believing me and knowing of me. My children know of me, but they don’t believe me. Those who believeth on me shall do the greater works (John 14:12) and these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick , and they shall recover (Mark 16:17 – 18).

Hoping is not believing.

Praying is not believing.

Worshipping is not believing.

Living beneath the promises of the Word is not believing.

These are all results of knowing of Him, not believing in Him.

When you truly believe in Jesus, you understand all of the power you have in His name to command animate and inanimate objects to come into righteousness – His divine order.

When you believe you are healed and you heal others.

When you believe you take dominion over the enemy in all areas of your life and in all of the places that you go. You have so much light of Jesus in you that just at your very command the enemy and his ways must flee.

When you believe, you leave your secular jobs to walk out the fullness of your Kingdom assignment.

When you believe, you can raise the dead in His name.

When you believe, you shall not die a natural death, but be transcribed into everlasting life.

When you believe your emotions line up as if what you are praying for has already been done.

It is time to elevate your belief. Here is the rest of the Word the Lord brought me to share with you this morning:

You must elevate your belief so I can truly operate in your life the way I have designed you. It is time for unwavering and bold belief in me. I need you to complete the work that I have begun upon the earth. The time is more urgent than you know and understand. Get into position so I can truly use you to transform the lives of all with whom you com in contact. Now children. You have been asking, ‘When, Lord? When will my time come? When will you use all of the gifts you have placed within me?’ Now. I will use you now if you only believe.

I challenge you to elevate your belief in Jesus. What areas in your life are lacking belief (these are the same areas in which you are experiencing fear)? Identify them and begin to command them to leave your life NOW, in Jesus’ name.

Good morning! As I was in my praise, worship, prayer and meditation time this morning, the Lord always brings a Word. Today He instructed me to share it with you. I literally have pages of revelation that I am working to get out to you and I will be posting several every week.

God is teaching me the secrets to accessing and manifesting supernatural provision. I was meditating upon this topic this morning and here is what He shared with me:

The Lord said, “Everything I have is yours. I designed it that way from the foundations of the earth.”

I asked, “Then, what is holding me back from receiving all you have for me?”

He replied, “The anointing…the anointing of giving.”

I asked for the scripture that opens up this revelation. He said, “All good gifts come from above.” I looked up that scripture and it is located in James 1:17. It reads, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

As I read this Word, I just sat and pondered how God does not change. He does not turn one way or the other so He can never cast a shadow from His turning. He is steadfast and unchanging. His laws and statutes are unchanging. His provision is constant and steady. It is me who gets off track.

He then continued this teaching by teaching that:

Giving breaks the strongholds of bondage (its fruits are poverty, lack, limitation, financial struggle, etc.). Yes, knowing the names of the hindering spirits is good, but this can be broken through with giving. Giving goes far beyond the tithe. The tithe does no measure the heart, where as giving does.

If you want to have a financial breakthrough – GIVE. But it cannot be a tainted offering. The amount must come from me, not from any man. Nor shall a man make a request of giving that is not cursed. It is I who makes a demand on your giving. No man has this authority because it does not belong to Him. I sustain those things that belong to me – those things that are Holy and pure.

If people are having challenges in their finances, they are not mine because they do no believe me. Everyone who is mine believes me and stands on my words.

I have given you a crown. Giving offers this gold crown back to me and in return, I give it to you. The more you give me of my crown, the more you receive.

Giving to the companies that provide services and resources (via bills) is a form of giving. Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over (Luke 6:38).

This goes far beyond money. Your true treasure is your heart. Give of yourself, give of your heart (and you will automatically give of your money) and I will reward you greatly. Not based on your works, but based on who I am.

I then asked God to release the anointing of giving in my spirit and my heart. I used the words from Matthew 16:19 and bound lack and limitation to the word of God that says My God shall supply all of my needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. I loosed instant provision in the name of Jesus.

Months ago God told me that His Body is suffering financially because they are not seeking His Kingdom.

He said that any lack in the Body (of Christ) was because of and evidence of people not seeking His Kingdom. I did not get this at the time.

Then about 2 weeks ago, He said to me, “Finally I can take care of you.” At the time He poured out a plan to raise up Kingdom builders to come out of the world and into His system of ministry and provision. I thought to myself, “God, after 8 years of full-time ministry and trusting you solely for my provision, you are just NOW able to take care of me?”

Here is the Word and revelation that The Holy Spirit shared with me on this topic:

He showed me Matthew 6:33: Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.

My children do not understand this scripture. We read it and understand it as if it says,” Seek ye first God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”

He can only take care of those who seek His Kingdom, which means to actively pull down His specific orders and manifest them on earth. This means specific instruction to move people from relying on the world/secular to relying on Him.

It is not enough to seek God. All of the praying, fasting, praising, worshipping, studying, attending church, etc. is seeking God. Yes, we are to seek God and then – and only then – will He open up His Kingdom to us. You have to be pure in heart and spirit for Him to open His Kingdom up to you. He only opens His Kingdome to those rid of all strongholds and their fruit in your life. No more evidence of Satan, only Jesus.

We must approach the throne of God and receive the instruction from God Himself. Then we bring the instruction back and build it up on the earth. It is us who manifest the Kingdom on Earth, we are His body.

I asked, “The seek in this scripture must mean build, right? Yes. I stopped and looked up the scripture in Greek and it meant endeavor and to have secret things opened to us. As I was writing out this Word, The Holy Spirit told me what the word “seek” means in this scripture. He said, “Pulling down the secret things of Heaven and building them upon the earth.

Until we are moving fully in Kingdom, He does not fulfill His promise of the scripture (and all these things will be added unto you) and He only sustains you. He does not add to us. In being sustained, you just have enough to get by and things are subtracted.

He showed me that at the beginning of the month, you have money, time, energy, etc. that by the end of the month are gone. When we move into Kingdom, he adds these things unto us. We will have more money, time, energy, etc. at the end of the month than we had at the beginning.

When you are in Kingdom, you will have more than you began the month with.

He showed me that building the Kingdom means taking the Kingdom assignment He gave you and working on it and manifesting it daily. He said that ministry and building Kingdom are two different things. You can be in ministry and never build Kingdom. We are all expected to be ministers. That does not mean that we are building His will upon the earth. He said that you must build Kingdom with strategic leadership and step into what He is telling you to do and then the resources will flow. It does not happen the other way around.

What specific territory are you claiming for Christ? When you do this, then you are moving in Kingdom.

I had a great question from a participant on my Beyond Fearless Tele-class on Thursday evening. I was sharing how praying to God and asking Him to deliver you from something is not effective. You must command the stronghold spirit directly, in Jesus’ name, and it must obey.

At the end of the call, she anonymously asked, “Can’t we pray to God and He will do it for us? Why not?” I answered, “No. God won’t do it for you because it is already yours. He had already given it to you. It has already been done.”

The Holy Spirit has been dealing with me in the fact that He has already given everything to us, now we only need to learn how to “pull it down” from the Heavenly realm. How do we do this? By spending time in the presence of God and prayer. God reminded me that the results are not in the doing, but to the extent that I am spending time in communion with Him.

He has already given me everything I need. Now, I just need to work on believing it and aligning my mind, body, and spirit with the Word of God. He shall provide all of my need according to His riches.

That means that every resource, person, insight, revelation, truth I need has already been released to me. Now, I just need to take it. God set aside the promised land for the Israelites and yet, they still had to step into their dominion and take it.

God also reminded me that I need to spend 50% of my time working and 50% percent of it needs to be His. He will show me everything I need to know in my time with Him. It is not by my works, but by His grace and mercy that I experience His blessings in my life.

What is it that you need? What do you need to “pull down” from Heaven?

Set aside time to sit with God this evening and see what He he will show you to do. He will literally show you how to expand your belief, speak to that mountain and it will move. It is already yours, now take it.

About Ericka

Ericka was 12 years old when she discovered her gift of speaking: Her seventh grade classmates responded to her campaign speech with a standing ovation. She has been making audiences rise to their feet ever since. Her anointing as a speaker and humor as a natural entertainer converge to create a life-changing experience for her audiences.

She believes that the best adventure of all is to live fully on purpose for Jesus. God has released her gifts of hearing His voice, teaching, prophecy, deliverance and healing for such a time as this. Through obedience and complete surrender, Ericka shares precious lessons of God’s Kingdom across the nation.

While she grew up in the church and gave her life to the Lord at a young age, it has been over the last 14 years that God has taken her through a process of being broken and “emptied out” so she could be rebuilt in accordance to His will.

Eight years ago she walked away from her corporate job to fulfill God’s calling on her life.

Her testimony is one of overcoming, forgiveness, faith and unyielding pursuit of the word of God. She is the author of five books and numerous CD’s. She studies under Apostle Elijah Forte at Zion Christian Training Center and lives in North Carolina with her daughter, Kalii.